This is just another brainfart in a long line of similar brainfarts. It just popped into my head and has become yet another distraction to keep me from finishing Carnivale. About that, I'm in the process of rewriting Carnivale because honestly, lets face it, it was a bit crap. So, if there's anything in particular you want to see in it, nows the time to tell me. So, without any further ado, my brainfart.

(As usual, I don't own anything except for my unnamed character who will probably never turn up ever again)

The List.

It was the tabloids of Brookland Comprehensive and anything worth knowing was written there. Latest hook-ups, who was seen snogging who during lunch, whose parents were divorcing and who had just turned out to be gay. Up until a year ago, it had been quite a diverse list, and there wasn't one person who dominated the list for more than a month or two. But at the beginning of the new school year, Alex Rider had become the main topic.

Until the death of his uncle, Alex had been one of the most normal kids in Brookland. He did well in his classes, made friends easily and was one of the stars of the football team. There wasn't anything strange about him; everyone seemed to have a friendly relationship with him. He greeted people in the halls and always had a full table to talk with at lunch. But that all changed when the headmaster gave the announcement at morning assembly.

He told the school that Alex's uncle had been killed in a car accident on his way back from a business trip and that Alex would be absent from school for the remainder of the week. He demanded that we all be sympathetic but not to overdo it; to give our condolences but not burst into sobs on poor Alex's shoulder. He also stated that casseroles turning up in the boy's locker were strictly prohibited and that if anyone tried to force entrées on him they would be given detention.

The whole school continued on but everyone was eager for Alex to return, either to offer their sympathies or just to see how the golden boy of the school would cope with something like that. But the week passed and the following Monday, he still wasn't back. Everyone just assumed he was taking a little more time off; understandable under the circumstances. Almost a month later, however, he still hadn't returned and the other students were very suspicious. Rumors flew. Some people said he simply took a vacation and went back to the United States with his housekeeper (maybe permanently?) while others swore they had recently seen Alex in a dark alley with a large and dangerous gang notorious for their dealings in narcotics. But adding to the rumors was the fact that there was an attack on the Prime Minister just two days before Alex coasted in through the front gates of Brookland on his bicycle as if nothing had happened.

It was at this point that the rumors grew exponentially. People started grilling each other for information on Alex's personal life; where he lived, who he lived with, why exactly he lived with his uncle and not with his parents and even his afterschool activities. It started to become clear that people didn't really know much about the friendly-but-mysterious Alex Rider. Everyone seemed to know a superficial Alex, the Alex who was always in a good mood and who everyone could depend on to help out, whether it was in a football match or finishing a history report. No one apart from Tom Harris had even been to his house before.

By the time he disappeared again, people were starting to compile a list of what they knew about him. The list was tacked up in an old locker that hadn't been used in ten years due to an excess amount of rust that kept building up. At first, The List was fairly short and only had basic facts:

Dead Uncle (Next to it, someone else had written "No shit, Sherlock!")

Speaks Spanish, French and German fluently (This was well known as everyone went to him for help in their foreign language classes)

Parents: MIA (Just a week after this had been written, it got out that his parents had, in fact, died when Alex was only one. This only made him seem more mysterious. Rumors of him being Harry Potter actually did circulate for a few days)

Lives with an American housekeeper

Like the rest of the school, I occasionally checked in on the list with my friends, but I never had anything to add. I'd been in Alex's year since we were nine when I transferred from Essex. I was never close to Alex, just another friendly acquaintance. Occasionally, we struck up a conversation during lunch or during some free time in a class we shared, but we never had enough in common to keep it up for long. I didn't play sports and tended to stay inside while he seemed to be constantly on the move and running around outside whenever he got a chance to. He spoke four languages fluently while I had been in beginner's French for the last three years. He woke up early every morning and lived every minute of his life while I slept in, sometimes past noon, and to let my life pass by, dragging me along.

It was no surprise we never hit it off.

I did, however, have a crush on him for a solid three years, like so many other girls in the school. And, like all the others, I fantasized about him sweeping me off my feet and into his perfectly toned, sun kissed arms and kissing me passionately while the school crowded around, clapping and cheering (as they'd all been waiting for us to finally realize our love for one another and were thrilled that we finally got together). Alas, it was never meant to be. He didn't return my feelings –not that I'd admitted them to him—and we continued on with our awkward conversations that always seemed to end with Alex having to run off somewhere.

Months passed and Alex continued with his mysterious disappearances, excused by a multitude of sicknesses that he had never suffered from before. He would leave for a month, and then come back for a week or two –just long enough for everyone to get used to him being back—then vanish once more. I, for one, was starting to get sick of the whole cycle and as time went on, I started to check The List more often, wishing there was something I could add to the many sheets of paper taped inside the locker. By this point, it was mostly just groundless rumors that people thought it would be funny to start. Someone had even written that Alex was actually the new girl, Alyssa, who had just joined the year below.

It wasn't until a Saturday in late October that I really got a look into Alex's life. It was something that I could write on The List and become instantly popular for. I could have people milling around me, trying to be first to get the full story on it; to hear about what I had discovered about Alex's secret and mysterious life. But it was something I just wanted to forget. I was on my way back home from one of my favorite bookstores and walking down Liverpool Street like I always do. There was nothing strange about it in the least. It was only around five o' clock so I had plenty of time to make it home before my mum put dinner on the table and started to count the seconds until I got home.

I jogged across the street, just barely making it before the light changed and the cars started forward, my brand new book tucked under my arm. I couldn't wait to start reading it as it was the last in a series by my favorite author and would finally reveal all of the secrets throughout the other books. I tugged my hat down farther to keep my ears warm. It wasn't too cold out yet, just cool enough to wear a sweatshirt and pants, but it had looked like it might rain so I had grabbed a hat on my way out the door. Now, I was glad I did as the sun was just starting to set and it was cooling off fast.

It was by pure coincidence that I looked over towards Royal & General just in time to see Alex walking down the front steps, his hands jammed into the front pockets of his grey hoodie and a serious look on his face. He looked like he was thinking hard about something, like something big had just been dumped on him. I was surprised, to say the least. I'd never seen him outside of school before and I wasn't even sure he would recognize me out of my uniform, hell, I barely recognized him. I waved from across the street, my arm up in the air to catch his attention, but his eyes were focused on the ground in front of him as he walked, his serious brown eyes showed he was deep in thought.

He had just returned from another of his disappearances and had actually been at school all week, looking a little worse for wear and telling anyone who asked that he had been mugged. I wasn't sure I believed his story as The List clearly stated that he was a black belt in Karate. Also making his story suspicious was the fact that he had vanished in Venice on the school trip he had gone on. The school was half expecting to hear that he was wanted in Italy for grand theft auto or something along those lines. But then he came back, a dark look in his eyes that hadn't been there before he left. Sure, over the months his eyes had changed, as had his personality. Everyone noticed it; he wasn't nearly as friendly as before and had a tendency to eat lunch alone with Tom or with other players from the football team. He had separated himself from the rest of the school –intentionally or not—and everyone noticed and left him alone, avoiding the dangerous glint in his eye.

I slowed my footsteps, seeing that Alex was about to cross the street and thinking that I could catch him on this side of the street. I watched silently as he looked both directions briefly before stepping down off of the curb.

And suddenly he stopped, looked around again and then looked down at his chest where a bright red stain was spreading across his grey sweatshirt.

And then he was falling backwards.

It took a second for the bang of the gun to reach me, delayed from the actual shot, and it wasn't until a few moments later –when a woman started screaming—that I realized what had happened.

Alex Rider had been shot.

People started to crowd around him, shouting, screaming and pulling out their mobile phones to call for an ambulance. I was frozen for a minute, just staring at the spot Alex had just been standing. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't move. I couldn't even catch my precious book that slipped out from under my arm and hit the sidewalk behind me. I could only stand there, staring at the crowd across the street as I tried to comprehend that my classmate and friendly acquaintance of five years had just been shot right in front of me.

"Alex!" I yelled, suddenly finding my voice and running forward, leaving my book where it fell. It didn't matter that I was running out into traffic as all the cars had slowed to a stop to see what all the commotion was about. It seemed like I was running for hours but it was actually only a few seconds until I reached the crowd and pushed my way through the shocked onlookers. "Alex!" I shouted again, finally able to see him.

It was a chilling sight. He was laying on his back, looking up at the sky, a shocked and dazed expression on his face as the red stain spread steadily. He opened his mouth as if he were going to say something but nothing came out. He was started to look scared –terrified. I heard someone talking quickly into their mobile phone, explaining the situation but I wasn't paying much attention. I was completely focused on the boy bleeding on the pavement in front of me. I tried to get closer to comfort him, but someone held me back, probably thinking I was too young to see something like this.

"Let me go, I know him!" I shouted out, not knowing where my restrainer was. They finally let go –I wasn't sure if it was because of what I said or if they were distracted by someone else in the crowd—and I pushed forward to Alex's side. I grabbed his arm, trying to let him know that someone was there, but his head was turned away from me, his eyes fixed on something that wasn't there. "Alex, its okay, there's help coming." I assured him, not knowing if he could even hear me as he didn't even glance in my direction. He just kept staring at that same spot as his breathing slowed, eventually stopping completely. He made a soft choking sound, like he were trying to breathe through water before he finally closed his eyes, a soft smile playing about his pale lips.

"Alex!" I shook him slightly, hoping he would open his eyes again, but he didn't respond. "Alex!" I shouted louder, as if that would bring him back. Someone pushed me out of the way and I fell back, off balance and completely in shock at what I had just witnessed: someone I had known as seen almost every day for the last five years of my life had just died right in front of me.

I looked up to see four strong-looking men in suits pushing people back from Alex, creating a perimeter around him. Then a woman dressed smartly in a skirt suit with an awkward hair cut hurried over, running as best she could in her heels on stairs. I could see she was talking into a headset, probably a radio, but I couldn't understand everything that she was saying. She seemed to be shouting out orders but only a few phrases reached me over the commotion around me.

"…has been shot, I repeat, Cub has been…"

Cub? Why was this lady calling Alex "Cub"? Was that a codeword used in Special Forces for someone underage? Nothing made sense! Was she from the bank? Secret Service? How did she get here so fast?

"Seal off the building…Blunt, immediately…sweep the surrounding rooftops…lucky, we may find something." Everything she was saying into her radio was jumbled to me as people shouted or something drowned out her voice. All around me, people were racing around, not that they could do anything for the boy lying on the pavement. A man from the crowd had bunched up a sweatshirt and was applying pressure to Alex's chest, but it didn't seem to be doing anything to help him as he didn't move. He was just lying there, pale and still. It was haunting, and I knew it was something I would never forget.

Imagine my surprise when I returned to school three days later and found out that Alex had been admitted into the hospital with appendicitis. It was then, sitting in my morning maths lesson, that I realized just how important secrecy was in Alex's life. I didn't know what he was doing or why he missed so much school –it obviously wasn't a sudden bout of illnesses—but I did know that whatever he was doing was dangerous and may even be dangerous to us, his classmates. I was fairly sure whatever it was wasn't illegal as those men in suits had looked official and very, very legal, but that didn't mean I wasn't scared for Alex's safety.

During lunch, I made my decision. The halls were fairly empty as most people were either in the canteen or outside enjoying the last nice day of the season so it was the perfect time to make my move. I casually strolled towards the empty locker that housed The List and opened it quietly, glancing down both directions of the hallway. Then, as quickly as possible, I ripped off The List in one quick swipe and shoved it into an empty pocket in my backpack, still glancing around as I zipped it closed.

Sure, I couldn't help Alex in whatever he was doing, and I certainly couldn't be his girlfriend for emotional support, but I could cut off the main source of rumors and make his life at school a little bit easier, even if only for a few weeks until another list was started. I knew it wouldn't be long before someone else started another one, but it definitely wouldn't be in the same locker, the headmaster would make sure of that after I sent an anonymous tip.

I grinned to myself, slightly proud, as I closed the locker door and strolled down the hall as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

Well, there's my story. Like it or hate it, review. Por favor! Tell me if you think it's brilliant or if you think it's crap. Either way, I want to know.

...Seriously, review. When a story gets over 300 hits and 8 reviews, that's just down right depressing and makes an author want to commit suicide. I know I'm not the only person who feels this way!

Oh, and if enough people like it, I might add on another chapter or something. I've just thought of a brief oneshot in which (unnamed character from this story) actually gets pulled into the action! Wouldn't that be interesting! (Don't worry, as I long as I'm writing it, Alex will stay as lonely and single as he ever was)

SJ